Foreign
THE Australian state of Victoria would go into a seven-day lockdown beginning Thursday to contain a growing cluster of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.
There are 34 active cases of the coronavirus across the state, with 12 new locally acquired cases detected in the past 24 hours.
Acting state premier James Merlino said more than 10,000 primary and secondary contacts had been identified in connection with the outbreak.
Health experts were especially concerned about how quickly the Indian variant is spreading, Merlino said.
“We also know our nation’s vaccine rollout has been slower than we’d hoped. And if more people are vaccinated, we might be facing a different set of circumstances.
“Sadly, we’re not,” Merlino said in a statement.
Under the measures, non-essential shops would close and the public would only be allowed to leave home for essential reasons, including for vaccination appointments.
Australia has been very successful so far in fighting the pandemic with extremely strict measures, including by keeping its international border closed with few exceptions since March 2020.
The country had recorded just over 30,000 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began.
But there was increasing criticism of the slow pace of vaccination and a growing backlash to the closed border, with the government indicating this month it does not expect international travel to resume until 2022.
As of Tuesday, 3.8 million vaccine doses had been administered nationwide.
This is the fourth Coronavirus lockdown for Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state.
Last year the capital city, Melbourne was under “stay at home’’ orders for 112 days. (dpa/NAN)
– May 27, 2021 @ 12:20 GMT
Tags: 7-day lockdown of Australia’s Victoria state aimed at containing virus cluster
